Welbore Ellis Agar

Welbore Ellis Agar FRS (1735 – 30 October 1805) was an Anglo-Irish gentleman, senior officer of HM Revenue and Customs, and art collector, who lived most of his life in Mayfair, Westminster.

[2] Later that year, after his inheritance, Agar subscribed £15,000 to a loan, showing a good deal of liquidity,[2] the sum being equivalent to £2,514,752 in 2023.

He bought in England, but also through agents in France and Italy, and sometimes in person,[2] building up an important collection reported in 1806 to be famous throughout Europe.

[7] By the time of his death, he owned some 120 works by old masters, including Velazquez, Poussin, Lorrain, Rubens, Murillo and Guido Reni.

[8] After Agar's death, a great auction sale of his collection was planned and advertised by James Christie the Younger, acting on behalf of Agar's sons, to take place on 2 and 3 May 1806, and many picture dealers travelled to England from continental Europe; but in vain, as at the end of April the whole collection was bought by Earl Grosvenor[8] for £35,000 (equivalent to £3,600,000 in 2023), so the auction was abandoned.

[7] Although no copies of the auction catalogue in English have survived, the details of the collection are found in a French language version, Catalogue raisonné de la collection de Monsieur Welbore Ellis Agar par J. Christie en sa Grande Salle dans Pall Mall a Londres, le Vendredi 2 Mai, 1806, et jour suivant,[7] which had been printed in Dresden and circulated in the weeks before the planned auction.

[8] One picture from Agar's collection, David Meeting Abigail, from the workshop of Rubens, is now owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum.